Lucent in Talks With Spain's Telefonica to Buy Stake in Equipment Maker
Bloomberg News
January 11, 1999, 3:10 a.m. ET
Lucent in Talks With Spain's Telefonica to Buy Stake in Amper
Madrid, Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Lucent Technologies Inc. of
the U.S. and Telefonica SA, Spain's No. 1 phone company, are in
talks about a ''general cooperation agreement,'' including
Lucent buying part of Telefonica's stake in Spain's No. 1 phone-
equipment maker, Amper SA, said Telefonica.
The companies could announce an agreement this week,
reported business daily Expansion today. Lucent, the top U.S.
phone-equipment maker, would likely buy between 10 percent and
15 percent of Amper for between 5.87 billion pesetas ($41
million) and 8.8 billion pesetas, with an option to buy the rest
in a year or two, reported Expansion. Telefonica officials were
unavailable for comment today.
Telefonica last year said the company wanted to sell its
24.4 percent stake in Amper to an international
telecommunications company. Telefonica is Amper's biggest
customer, and accounted for 40 percent of Amper's sales last
year, down from 50 percent in 1997.
Amper supplies installation services to some Lucent
customers in Spain, Lucent spokesman Scott Horne said on Friday.
Lucent has 1,900 sales, support and manufacturing employees at a
plant in Madrid, Horne said.
--Brooke Nelson in the Madrid bureau (34) 91 700 9600, with
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